Families in last hug as wildfires kill 74 in Greece

mati (greece) — Wildfires sweeping through a Greek resort town have killed 74 people, including families with children found clasped in a last embrace as they tried to flee the flames.

The inferno was by far Greece’s worst since fires devastated the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens. Officials said it broke out in Mati, east of Athens, late on Monday afternoon and was broadly contained by Tuesday afternoon.

Emergency crews found the bodies of 26 victims, some of them youngsters, lying close together near the top of a cliff overlooking a beach. “Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced,” Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, told Skai TV. —

mati (Greece) - Wildfires sweeping through a Greek resort town have killed at least 74 people including families with children found clasped in a last embrace as they tried to flee the flames.

The inferno was by far Greece’s worst since fires devastated the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens. Officials said it broke out in Mati, east of Athens, late on Monday afternoon and was broadly contained by Tuesday afternoon though still burning in some areas, with the risk of reigniting in scrubland parched by Greece’s searing summer heat.

“Greece is going through an unspeakable tragedy,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said as he appeared on television to declare three days of national mourning.

Emergency crews found the bodies of 26 victims, some of them youngsters, lying close together near the top of a cliff overlooking a beach. They had ended up there after apparently searching for an escape route.

“Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced,” Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greece’s Red Cross, told Skai TV.

Many hours after the blaze broke out, the strong smell of charred buildings and trees lingered in the air in parts of Mati on Tuesday. White smoke rose from smouldering fires.

Residents, their faces blackened by smoke, wandered the streets, some searching for their burned-out cars, others for their pets. The eerie silence was punctured by fire-fighting helicopters and the chatter of rescue crews. —

AFP a house is threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta, near athens. More than 300 firefighters, five aircraft and two helicopters have been mobilised to tackle the “extremely difficult” situation due to strong gusts of wind. —